66 



ment for this special work, than to add it to 

 the already heavy duties of all the number of that 

 or any other Department ; for each branch of the 

 Service has at present its time fully engaged. The 

 experiment would in any case be very interesting, 

 and it might in the first instance be made on a small 

 scale, by planting, say 2,000 acres in Berar, or the 

 Central Provinces, where the Calotropis is known to 

 grow wild over a scattered expanse of country, and 

 where there is no lack of sterile land, which, though 

 peculiarly suited to the Calotropis, is absolutely un- 

 fitted for the growth of any other crop. If at the 

 the same time another little experiment were made in 

 the Punjab or Sind (which is par excellence the land 

 of the Calotropis), the Government would very soon 

 find whether there was any probability of the scheme 

 coming to anything. Every effort should, of course, 

 be made to reduce the cost of production (by con- 

 centrating labour, and by encouraging the cultiva- 

 tion of the plant in uniform blocks, thereby facili- 

 tating transport) and of the manufacture of the 

 fibre.* It may be said, with reference to my sug- 

 gestion that a body of men should be taken from 

 the Forest Department to carry out the scheme I ad- 

 vocate, that this Department cannot afford men. 

 This is, of course, a point for the consideration, of 

 Government and the heads of the Department ; but 



* I would here remind the authorities that before proceeding to out- 

 door experiments it would be necessary to provide a machine for the ex- 

 traction of the fibre. This done, the experiments could be extended to 

 the plant in its wild state ; and finally artificial cultivation could be re- 

 sorted to if trials warranted it. I would here invite the reader's attention 

 to the Appendix, 



